World Poultry Awards Winners 2006

There were 50 entries for the inaugural World Poultry Awards of which 18
were shortlisted by an international jury of specialists in various fields of
interest in the poultry industry.

Based on their findings the jury, chaired by Wiebe van der Sluis, editor of
World Poultry magazine, decided the following would receive a Gold Award.

Big Dutchman: EggFlow and Tracking System

Big Dutchman's new EggFlow and Tracking System consists of several
automation components, measuring techniques, as well as hardware and
software modules to optimise the egg stream. Read more...

Jury remarks: Based on the information provided the
jury concluded that this is a great innovation. It improves the egg flow
during automatic collection, optimizes packer utilisation and provides
more transparency of the egg stream allowing better in-line tracing and
tracking.

Breuil: Automatic Feather Sexing
System

The Automatic Feather Sexing system (patent pending) is designed to
separate one-day-old chicks automatically and to send them through a
specifically designed unit for detecting the bird's sex by reading the
wing tips it also separates the birds into categories of males, females
and undetected. Read more...

Jury remarks: This is definitely an innovation for the
poultry industry worth taking a closer look at. In today's hatchery it is
often difficult to find qualified people to feather sex birds. This system
takes on this job without complaining at a acceptable speed and accuracy.

Jury remarks: Food safety is the main issue of this
decade. This new machine makes use of new and innovative technology to
pasteurise liquids and requires less energy and chemicals compared to
existing systems

RnA: Rapid salmonella detection

RnA provides diagnostic laboratories with a new multi serological
PlexTM assay to measure micro organisms in a product or pathogenic
bacteria which causes infections on flock, herd or slaughterhouse scale.
Read more...

Jury remarks: Wouldn't it be great to know whether
your birds or poultry product can be declared free from pathogens when
leaving or arriving your premises? And if pathogens are present wouldn't
it be great to know right away what bacteria and of what type has been
detected? Instant analysis technologies are not available right now, but
the technology used by RnA shortens the time span dramatically from a few
days to just a few hours.

Stork: ACM-NT portioning system

With the brand new ACM-NT portioning system, Stork has made the step
from 4,000 products per hour to 6,500. Read more...

Jury remarks: Speed and accuracy are top of mind
issues in poultry processing. The ACM-NT portioning system meets these
demands and allows a greater spread of weights. This novelty is also a
major improvement over existing systems and a very innovative concept.

Vencomatic: Patio hatching and housing
system

The Patio broiler system is designed for bringing in pre-hatched eggs.
Because the new system is specially designed around the needs of the young
bird, it provides excellent health and welfare conditions for the housed
birds. Read more...

Jury remarks: For many years the poultry industryhas
recognised that knowledge about how to manage the first week of a chicks'
life is a weak spot. Veterinary scientists as well as nutritionists are
looking for improvements. Hatchery specialists have made their
contribution in increasing the quality of chicks but the problem of how to
provide food and water to the chick immediately after leaving the shell
remained an open question for many. By combining the hatching and brooding
phase in one structure the Patio is a real novelty and may, potentially,
contribute to bird health and performance, as well as efficiency of the
farm operation.

The remaining nominations were of such high quality
that the jury found it difficult to make a distinction and decided therefore to
skip the Bronze award. This means that all nominated products have been honored
with a Silver Award.